Contemporary operating systems, including operating systems for hand-held computing devices and mobile telephones, have an application-centric user experience. To access content, the user selects an application from a list or from a set of icons, or browses a set of files to select a file, which in turn loads the appropriate application (if not already loaded) and opens the file in that application.
As a result, the user either accesses information by folder or type (e.g., photographs, documents, and the like) or by application (e.g., an email application, a text (SMS) application, a web service such as for social networking, and so forth. This provides a user experience that does not fit well with how many users communicate with other users, given the variety of communications options available to users today.